Incumbents Fitzpatrick, Malagari re-elected
In the race for Pennsylvania’s 1st District in the U.S. House of Representatives, incumbent Republican Brian Fitzpatrick, who emphasized his bipartisanship in the district that was won by Democrat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election, was projected by news agencies including the Associated Press, as having won the election.
The district includes Bucks County and a portion of Montgomery County.
Unofficial Montgomery County vote counts Thursday showed Fitzpatrick with 24,219 votes to Democrat Christina Finello’s 23,886. Unofficial Bucks County tallies showed Fitzpatrick with 206,298 votes to Finello’s 144,705.
The Montgomery County totals included 7,203 of Fitzpatrick’s votes as having come from mail-in ballots and 17,016 from from votes cast in person on Election Day. Finello had 15,189 mail-ins and 8,697 in person votes, the Montgomery County numbers showed.
“I love our community so much and I’m honored and humbled to represent Pennsylvania’s First District for the next two years. I am ranked the #1 most independent congressman in the entire nation, and that is exactly what our community deserves,” Fitzpatrick said in a statement Thursday.
“Our community is not far-left or far-right, we are centrist and pragmatic. ... Our People’s Movement is about building bridges at a time when too many are trying to burn them. We must start listening more than lecturing, viewing diversity of thought as a strength to be harnessed, not a weakness to be criticized. Our People’s Movement is about building consensus in the center and moving forward to save our nation. We need to be one community, now more than ever and I am excited to continue this fight in Congress.”
The Finello campaign did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment on Thursday.
On Wednesday, Finello’s campaign manager issued a statement: “As we have repeatedly emphasized, it is critical that we trust our democratic process and wait for every vote to be counted,” said Ali Anderson.
53rd District
In the race for the Pennsylvania House of Representatives 53rd District, unofficial Montgomery County tallies Thursday morning showed incumbent Democrat Steve Malagari with 19,649 votes to Republican Miles Arnott’s 16,282. Arnott is a Telford Borough Council member.
Malagari’s total included 11,124 mail-in votes and 8,525 in person. Arnott’s total included 3,282 mail-ins and 13,000 in person.
“We’re very happy with the result that came out, naturally. There are still ballots that were legally cast that must get counted. We need to make sure that they do,” Malagari said in a telephone interview Thursday.
The ballots still to be counted included ones from members of the military and overseas voters, he said.
“We’re very confident that the result will remain the way it is now and very thankful to members of the community who came out to vote, and in addition to that, to all the volunteers and to the poll workers and to everybody for coming out and exercising their right to get their voice heard, and look forward to another two years of representing our community in Harrisburg,” Maligari said.
“Our team is today back in the office and yesterday we were back in the office as well, helping with our constituents in taking care of unemployment claims and typical constituent service that we’ve been providing from the beginning.”
He said he’s also gearing up for the return to legislative sessions later in the month.
The Arnott campaign did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
The 53rd District includes Franconia, Hatfield Township, Hatfield Borough, Lansdale, Salford, Souderton and the Montgomery County portion of Telford.